...and sharing it with you is our dream.
Team 4-0 lives for the outdoors. We do almost all of our hunting and fishing here in the great state of Illinois. A lot of these properties are small plots of private ground owned by family and friends, but a large amount is actually ground open to public hunting.
Saturday was one of those mornings that reminds me why I love bowhunting. The last few weeks have been warm, and deer movement has slow. We have been hunting hard, despite hardly seeing any deer, knowing that the switch would flip eventually, and the activity could pick up any day. I had a vacation day Friday, so headed to the woods with one of my good hunting buddies. The weather was good, and I had high hopes, but the morning hunt was pretty well a bust for us both. I seen one forky, and he seen two does in the distance. We ate some lunch, and decided to head out for the evening hunt. At 3:30 I had my first deer of the afternoon in the food plot. By the time dark came I had seen 7 bucks, all working every scrape within sight. Finally the bucks were on their feet during daylight hours! We left my house the next morning at 4:30, and after the action the previous night, I couldn’t wait to get in the stand. Due to the wind direction I had to switch stands, and hunt a set I hadn’t sat in since last season. I saw my first deer at the crack of sunrise…a spike. After that I had a steady stream of buck activity. It seemed like every 20 minutes or so another buck would show up. All young, but still great to finally see some activity. About 20 minutes till 9 I decided to do some calling. I like to blow into my can call, so that I can make the bleat a little longer. I gave a long estrous bleat, followed by a few short tending grunts from my True Talker. Within a few minutes I hear a deer coming down the ridge from the bedding area across from me. I catch a glimpse of him, and immediately know that if he gives me a shot, I’m going to take it. He walks straight toward me, all puffed up and stiff legged…ears pinned back. He stops at 40 yards and looks directly at me, but after a few seconds puts his head down and keeps coming. At 30 yards he lets out a long grunt-wheeze. Brrrrrrrrrrrr-fffffff. I could see the drool dripping off his mouth and the steam from his breath when he wheezed. At this point I’m about ready to lose it. He steps into my lane at 18 yards….baaaa….I settle my pin…..SCHWACK! His rump dropped immediately, tail tucked…I knew I drilled him. Within 40 yards I see him crash. The Slick Trick ate him up! He’s my biggest bow buck, and a hunt I won’t soon forget. His chest and neck were huge. I can still hear that grunt-wheeze in my head. Just an awesome experience and a great hunt. Some mornings, when the alarm goes off at 3:45, I’m tired, don’t want to get up, and I haven’t been seeing much, I wonder why I do this. This is why…this is what drives me to hunt…this is why I’m ate up with bowhunting. This one’s for you Pop!
I went out to my farm and had sat up a hang on stand in the same tree my great aunt who passed away several years ago had a stand in. after I sat up the stand I went back to our cabin and had some lunch with grandpa and then I got ready but remembered my shotgun was not shooting correctly so I grabbed my dads single shot bore barrel shotgun and headed to the stand. I was wearing my bone collector "mack daddy" sent lock suit and got settled in and then the waiting game started! I sat for nearly three hours before I seen my first deer which was a small buck and elected to let him go. Boy am I glad I let him walk!! about 10 minutes later I seen this big boy in the field and let him walk into range and turn broadside. I was shooting free-hand but I settled the cross-hairs right behind his shoulder the best I could and squeezed the trigger. *POW* when the smoke cleared I seen him running away tail tucked! I immediately texted my dad and told him I hit a monster but was unsure of how good the hit was. I climbed down and went back to the cabin and told my uncle and grandpa the story and they simply said "lets go track him!" When we went up we found one tiny speck of blood in a patch of snow so I decided to let him go until the next morning. Me and my dad made the hour drive back to our farm in the morning where my uncle was so kind as to give up his morning hunt to help me look for him. we were searching the field for blood and apparently the darkness from the night before prevented us from seeing the blood so we followed it to the wood line and lost blood quick. I kept telling my father "I bet he is laying up under those pines" so we went to look. That's where I found him laying in the pines, however, this is when it gets interesting. I poked him to double check that he had expired and HE BLINKED! I gave him the final blow with the shot gun my Great aunt had left me in her will. It wasn't until a couple weeks later I found out the day I shot my buck was also would have been my aunts birthday! To this day I would bet anything I had my aunt watching over me talking me through every step. The buck ended up grossing out at 153 1/4 and holds the record at my farm for the highest scoring buck.
Trevor had a lot of history with this deer. After a summer full of trail camera pictures, Trevor knew that "triple 12" would be his main target the 2010 season. After a fairly uneventful early fall, the morning of November 4th found Trevor in a thicket on the opposite side of the farm triple 12 was known to frequent. However, this was the rut and anything could happen. Sure enough shortly after daylight the brute came through and made a scrape before offering Trevor a 30 yard quartering away shot. Trevor made the shot count and this big boy was down for good!
1/20/2012- New fan submission from Ronnie Webster with some amazing and beautiful animals from Africa. Let's see some more photos and stories everyone!
1/18/12- New fan submission! Thanks Austin Marshall!
1/13/2012- Got a new fan submission up today, be sure to check that out. Also, today was the last day I will be able to bowhunt whitetails here in central IL. So, I guess it's coyote/wood cutting season now.
1/9/2012- Well last night was not good for me, very unhappy with the results of the Pittsburgh/Denver game! I guess I'll have to root for Houston now. Hope everyone is having a good week, the ATA show is happening, excited to see the new things coming out. Again I hope to see everyone posting their stories! God Bless!
1/3/2012- Hey Guys and Gals! I have done a few more site updates as well as updated the facebook page. Check us out on facebook and please share your thoughts, pictures, and stories. We want your success posted on this site. God Bless!
1/2/2012- FIRST POST- First off, I'm happy to have the site up, I hope it's something you guys like to check up on. We are your average guys and this site is here to share our thoughts, successes and failures with you. However, we want everyone of you to pitch in your stories! Whether it be deer, fish, or anything else we chase. 2011's Illinois archery deer season is coming to a close, it has been pretty good for me. I have killed two does, and a good buck... I have passed A LOT of deer, some that maybe I shouldn't have. Pittsburgh is in the playoffs, and the holidays have been great! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
©4-0productions 2011. All rights reserved. CJ Turner E-mail: cj_2008_turner_yahoo.com
